The Usatovo culture developed in southeastern Central Europe at around 3300–3200 BCE at the Dniestr. [71] Although closely related to the Tripolye culture, it is contemporary with the Yamna culture and resembles it in significant ways. [72] According to Anthony, it may have originated with "steppe clans related to the Yamnaya horizon who were able to impose a patron-client relationship on Tripolye farming villages." [73] According to Anthony, the Pre-Germanic dialects may have developed in the culture between the Dniestr (western Ukraine) and the Vistula (Poland) in c. 3100–2800 BCE, and spread with the Corded Ware culture. [74] Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with the adjacent 3rd-millennium cultures ( Baden culture and Globular Amphora culture, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture) Anthony combines linguistics and archeology to localize the origins of the Indo-European language family and plot its spread across Eurasia, similar to Spencer Wells' efforts to combine genetics and archeology to trace the spread of humans from Africa. The adjacent Bug-Dniester culture (6300–5500 BCE) was a local forager culture from which cattle-breeding spread to the steppe peoples. [14] The Dniepr Rapids area was the next part of the Pontic-Caspian steppes to shift to cattle-herding. It was the most densely-populated area of the Pontic-Caspian steppes at the time and had been inhabited by various hunter-gatherer populations since the end of the Ice Age. From ca. 5800–5200, it was inhabited by the first phase of the Dnieper-Donets culture, a hunter-gatherer culture contemporaneous with the Bug-Dniestr culture. [15] Chapter Nine: Cows, Copper and Chiefs [ edit ]

In its integration of language and archaeology, this book represents an outstanding synthesis of what today can be known with some certainty about the origin and early history of the Indo-European languages. In my view, it supersedes all previous attempts on the subject."—Kristian Kristiansen, AntiquityAlmost two-thirds of the bookshelves into the archaeological history/cultures from Southern Europe to just east of the Ural mountains of Eurasia; particularly the Pontic-Caspian steppe region. This thorough (almost too thorough) examination of midden, grave goods, and building structures turns some major theories of Proto-Indo-European language speakers on their heads. For example, most authorities credit the invention of the chariot to Near Eastern societies around 1900 to 1800 BCE. Through an analysis of horse teeth found in steppe graves to determine whether or not horses were bitted and an examination of very early spoked wheels and cheekpieces also found in those same graves, Anthony posits that chariots were actually first developed by people of the steppe regions around 2000 BCE. The eastern part (Volga-Ural-North Caucasian) of the Yamna horizon was more mobile than the western part (South Bug-lower Don), which was more farming-oriented. [67] The eastern part more male-oriented, and the western part was more female-inclusive. [68] The eastern part also had a higher number of males buried in kurgans, and its deities were male-oriented. [69] Chapter Fourteen: The Western Indo-European Languages [ edit ] Course of the Danube, in red I really got into the first third of this book with the author’s mixing of linguistics with anthropology and how we probably really do know a lot of cool things about the formation of the proto-Indo-European language and the peoples who spoke it and how it could of maybe did develop with a lot of guesses that make a ‘just so story’ seem possibly believable. After all, who amongst us doesn’t love pre-history. I know I do. In its integration of language and archaeology, this book represents an outstanding synthesis of what today can be known with some certainty about the origin and early history of the Indo-European languages. In my view, it supersedes all previous attempts on the subject." ---Kristian Kristiansen, Antiquity By combining the insights of historical linguistics with meticulous analysis of archaeological data (available since the end of the cold war) David Anthony describes who these people were and their history.

Readers who are primarily familiar with the characterization of Proto-Indo-Europeans drawn by Dumézil and Gimbutas (like myself) will find out to their surprise and delight that breakthroughs in archaeology in recent decades have forced us to substantially revise their theories. For example, Gimbutas's concept of peaceful matriarchal cultures being militarily overrun receives a strong challenge, as does her excessively reductive view of a homogenous Kurgan culture. But the basic pattern Gimbutas suggested remains intact. David Anthony's book is a masterpiece. A professor of anthropology, Anthony brings together archaeology, linguistics, and rare knowl

Overview

Most people who think of the discovery of the Horse, and wheel will automatically think of war, but the author gives us a history of both and how they effected the lives of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and the last thing that it effected was war. This rather technical overview of recent archaeological and linguistic scholarship sheds important light on the mysterious Proto-Indo-European-speaking Bronze Age cultures and offers a tentative picture of their development and spread across the Steppes until they impacted an area stretching between Western China and Atlantic Ocean. The author pays special attention to evidence for the domestication of the horse around 4000 BCE and draws attention to his original work analyzing bit wear patterns on teeth. the central problem with this book is its assumption that Indo-Europeans exclusively or nearly exclusively practiced certain cultural features, including technologies and even religious rituals. Was such exclusivity characteristic of the late prehistoric world or, rather, were peoples who spoke different languages continuously interacting with each other, adopting and transforming other peoples' practices and beliefs? Part Two covers the development of the Steppe cultures and the subsequent migrations out of the Pontic-Caspian region into Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia. The splitting of the major branches of Indo-European (except perhaps Greek) can be correlated with archaeological cultures, showing steppe influences in a way that makes sense chronologically and geographically in light of linguistic reconstructions. Anthony gives an introduction to Part Two (ch. 7); describes the interaction between Balkan farmers and herders and steppe foragers at the Dniester River (in western Ukraine) and the introduction of cattle (ch. 8); the spread of cattle-herding during the Copper Age and the accompanying social division between high and low status (ch. 9); the domestication of the horse (ch. 10); the end of the Balkan cultures and the early migrations of Steppe people into the Danube Valley (ch. 11); the development of the steppe cultures during the Eneolithic, including the interaction with the Mesopotamian world after the collapse of the Balkan cultures and the role of Proto-Indo-European as a regional language (ch. 12); the Yamna culture as the culmination of these developments at the Pontic-Caspian steppes (ch. 13); the migration of Yamna people into the Danube Valley and the origins of the western Indo-European languages at the Danube Valley (Celtic, Italic), the Dniester (Germanic) and the Dnieper (Baltic, Slavic) (ch. 14); migrations eastward which gave rise to the Sintashta culture and Proto-Indo-Iranian (ch. 15); migrations of the Indo-Aryans southward through the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex into Anatolia and India (ch. 16); and concluding thoughts (ch. 17). [1] Contents [ edit ] Part One: Language and Archaeology [ edit ] Chapter One: The Promise and Politics of the Mother Language [ edit ] The Sredny Stog culture (4400–3300 BCE) [32] appears at the same location as the Dniepr-Donets culture but shows influences from people who came from the Volga River region. [33] The Sredni Stog culture was "the archaeological foundation for the Indo-European steppe pastoralists of Marija Gimbutas," [34] and the period "was the critical era when innovative Proto-Indo-European dialects began to spread across the steppes." [34]